Delhi High Court Seeks Union Govt’s Response On PIL Seeking Linking Of Properties With Aadhaar

The Delhi High Court on Monday sought response of the Union Government on a public interest litigation seeking linking of property documents with Aadhaar.

A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Yashwant Varma asked the union ministries of Finance; Housing and Urban Affairs; Rural Development, and Law to file their response. Notice in the case was issued to MHA in July 2019. 

The court was hearing the PIL moved by BJP leader and Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay seeking direction on the Union of India and Delhi government to take steps to link movable and immovable property documents of citizens with their Aadhaar number to "curb corruption, black money and benami transaction".

During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma appearing for the Union of India said that the issue raised in the PIL is important.

The bench orally said that it is an “important matter” and listed it for hearing on July 18.

In the plea, Upadhyay has submitted that the Right to Life guaranteed under Article 21 of Constitution of India cannot be secured and that the “golden goals” set out in the Preamble cannot be achieved without curbing the corruption and benami transaction.

“Therefore, it is the duty of the State to take apposite steps to curb corruption and seize the benami properties,” the plea states.

It is Upadhyay’s case that linking property documents with Aadhaar number will help in curbing corruption as black money holders would be forced to declare their unaudited movable and immovable properties. 

The plea cites reports from various organisations such as Transparency International to show how benami transactions lead to rampant corruption and dismantling of the effective public distribution system.

"As on today, every citizen of our country have an Aadhaar number, asking them to link it to their property documents is a better option. The main advantage of this strategy is that the tax authorities will get details about 'legal owners' immediately," the plea states.

It adds that once the Aadhaar linkage happens, tax authorities can approach the “legal owners” and it can be treated as benami property if the “legal owners” are unaware or deny knowledge of the ownership.

Even if the legal owner takes onus and claims that it is his property, he needs to show the 'source of income' for buying that property, the plea adds.

Case Title: Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay v. Union of India & Anr.